The City of Tampere is a test site for new mobile services

10/3/2016

Researchers in Tampere, Finland, are developing a test site for companies and organisations where they can plan, develop and pilot location-based services in a densely populated and service intensive urban environment.

A central aim of the CityTrack research project is to translate location information to added value for consumers who move about in the city centre. New services will be introduced in the test site at and around the Tampere railway station in order to help people find suitable connecting train routes, restaurants and shops. The partners in the project will be able to use the service pilots without a charge as soon as they become available.

The CityTrack project is a joint effort of Open Location Platform company HERE and the technology provider Beemray, local public sector representatives the City of Tampere and the Tampere Region Economic Development Agency Tredea, and the piloting partners, which currently include Finnpark, Kesko, Tampere Hall and the S Group. The project is coordinated by the University of Tampere by researchers working at the School of Information Sciences and the School of Management.

“Mobility and location-aware services require a combination of technologies to meet the end-user expectations in dense urban environments. The CityTrack project in Tampere gives us an excellent opportunity to pilot the full potential of the HERE Location Suite with seamless indoor/outdoor positioning and navigation capabilities in a large number of different kinds of use cases. We are really looking forward to what we can learn and deliver in this project,” says Senior Manager Jari Syrjärinne from HERE Positioning Services.

“CityTrack is an excellent opportunity for the University of Tampere to carry out multidisciplinary research related to urban mobility and cross-channel customer experiences. We are excited to work together with world-class project partners to build a test environment the kind of which has never been seen before,” says Project Manager Marko Luomi from the University of Tampere.

“The Internet of Things and digitalisation are mega trends in both industry and consumer technology and they will also change cities. The City of Tampere is eager to develop intelligent services and infrastructure. CityTrack gives us an excellent platform for piloting practical applications that will benefit the inhabitants and everyone visiting our city,” says Director of Urban Development Kari Kankaala from the City of Tampere.

“The aim of the Innovative Cities programme INKA is to produce business development platforms in cooperation with businesses and actors in the public sector and to support the creation of innovations, digital services and new business models. The CityTrack platform has the potential of becoming an international level development environment for urban solutions in digital mobility and commerce and it can offer brand-new services for the global market,” says the Programme Manager of Inka Markku Koponen from Tekes.

The one-year research project will end in the summer of 2017 and the budget is EUR 400,000. CityTrack is a part of the Innovative Cities programme of Tekes.